Once again, Deacon Mick has given an excellent homilly – this time on Respect Life Sunday. His text is below. – LAW
The parable of the vineyard, to a certain degree
sums up the story of redemption.
The leaders of Israel were given care of the vineyard but
they didn’t produce for the Lord.
They rejected and killed the Son
who came to help, assist and guide them
in producing a yield for the Lord.
Finally, the vineyard
was then given to new stewards and keepers.
These new stewards, these new keepers,
these new managers of the vineyard in todays world
are you and me.
The vineyard is our world, our society.
It is rich in abundant blessings.
So—what are we doing with the vineyard?
How are we caring for it?
You see, within this vineyard is the most precious gift of all,
the gift of human life.
Do we reverence life?
Of course, we reverence life when we see a beautiful baby,
a young married couple,
a person at the height of his or her powers.
If something should ever happen to such individuals,
all the medical resources of this society
would be gathered and mobilized to help save a life.
The real challenge
we bring to our vineyard, our country
is to ask not
whether we reverence life in the beautiful,
the healthy, the talented
but whether we care for all human life.
Now, some people say the Catholic Church is preoccupied with abortion, with protecting the unborn.
Once a baby is born, they say,
the Catholic Church disappears.
This is absolutely false!
If there is any institution on earth that
for the twenty centuries of its existence
has looked after the poor, the sick,
the orphans, the hungry, the uneducated,
those afflicted with cancer, aids, Covid-19,
the homeless, addicts,
refugees and immigrants (even when unpopular),
it’s the Catholic Church.
This massive commitment by the Catholic Church
to the works of mercy
is true not only in the United States but around the world.
Today, however,
the Church focuses especially on the unborn because
that is where a major threat resides today.
To disregard life at its most vulnerable,
when you can’t see it, can’t tickle it,
can’t touch it, can’t look into its eyes
is the beginning of the dehumanizing
and trivializing of all human life,
the start of the slippery slope
to the disregard for all human life
that we see escalating today.
That is why the Church today is the voice of the unborn,
as she was for the lepers,
the disabled, and the orphan in the past.
The wider issue, of course,
is not only what is happening to the unborn
but what is happening to us.
There are groups around that
take care of the environment
because the environment can’t take care of itself.
There are groups of people dedicated
to the taking care of wildlife,
following the mandate of Genesis,
because wildlife in today’s world can’t protect itself.
So what about the care of human life,
especially unborn life?
These human beings cannot protect themselves either.
God gave us a beautiful world
in which we can come to grow
in His image and to know Him.
The crown of this vineyard is human life.
If this portion of the vineyard, human life, is ravaged,
it won’t be from outer space,
it will be from neglect here on earth.
It won’t be from some outside invasion
but from within,
as human life is wasted and destroyed by our action or inaction.
My friends, choose some dimension of human life,
the elderly, the disabled, or especially today,
the unborn and make that your area of special care,
your way of serving the Lord and caring for the vineyard.
The month of October and specifically this Sunday
has been designated
Respect Life Month
by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
It’s a time for us to evaluate
how well we are doing in the vineyard
to respect life of —
all ages, races, colors, and creeds from conception to natural death.
To respect the precious gift of life
especially for those who are unable to protect themselves
or speak for themselves.
God has given us a vineyard,
the only one like it, as far as we know, in the universe
blessed with the miracle of human life.
The Lord has sent his Son to help us
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Lord has truly given us a beautiful country,
this vineyard called the United States.
Whether it’s a place where
all human life has a chance to grow and thrive
is up to us — up to you and me.
Whether the future holds a respect for human life
is not decided by the stars,
it will be decided by ourselves.
We have been given a job to do by the Lord.
None of us can do everything.
We all can do something
to restore respect for human life
In our vineyard —- in our time of stewardship.
Or as we heard in today’s gospel——-
“Therefore, I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit”